Sagamemnon

Procs are a mixed bag. You can do some amazing things with them in powers if you put enough procs in enough powers.

Slotting sets is and will be a personal taste matter. My slotting and say local man's will be drastically different depending on our particulars. Note I'm not saying either one is better or worse just different. I could take the same build with the same powers and both would play differently. The problem sometimes with giving set advice is someone will usually come down and trash how you slot your toon. Others like to keep "Trade Secrets" I remember for the longest time THUNDERSTRIKE was a gold mine set. It was cheap, readily available and gave some decent bonuses. Not OMG but pretty good. Then people discovered it and it shot through the roof.

Case in point (get ready to blast me!! muwhahah) I don't really go proc heavy on most of my builds. So my slotting reflects that. I also start slotting sets at 22, and keep most for their bonuses because I do lots of low level task forces and those bonuses make a difference I can feel. I like having 4 ranged powers 5 slotted with lvl 25s from the decimation set. That 25% global is very nice at that level.

With that in mind I shall give some ideas about how I slotted my Earth/Ta who hit 32 yesterday.

Stone Prison: Decimation 5x
Fossilize: Gaze of the Basilisk 4x, Devastation 2x
Earthquake: Achilles Heal Proc, Dampened Spirits 5x
Volcanic Gasses: Gaze of the Basilisk 4x, Lockdown 2x
Acid Arrow: Shield Breaker 2x, Analyze Weakness 4x
Flash Arrow: Clouded Senses 4x
Animate Stone: Call to Arms 4x, 2 undecided
OSA: Posi 2x, Detonation 2x, Undermined Defense 2x
Stalagmites: Stupefy 5x, 1 undecided

But I'm going for lots of Rech, most sets will be lvl 25 some will be 50 to bring up %.
Can almost achieve perma hasten with the Earth/TA/Earth build I have been tinkering with and have managed to get Earths Embrace almost perma without hasten. This is all with no purples.

I currently have an Earth/TA and it just hit lvl 31. Soloing was not as bad for me. Personally I am a big fan of Assault. It gives a 15% damage bonus, constantly. That is pretty dam good. I also took the single target immob and slotted if entirely for damage. The bonus from assault combined with the debuff from acid arrow makes a huge difference. Acid arrow also has a nice recharge which allows you to stack it on multiples.

Assault is also an oft skipped gem. However that 15% damage bonus also applies to your pet. I took assault on my mind/trick arrow troller and with a 15% global damage bonus that is a nice bit of speed IMO.

Assault also doesn't really require more then 1 extra slot and even that is debatable with enough +Recovery. So again it allows more slots to go into your critical powers.

I am also fond of Maneuvers as its a decent form of stacking +DEF and a great place for LOTG 7.5% and LOTG def/end for a nifty 10% Regen bonus.

I understand that I am probably a rare or dying breed that advocates the leadership pool but I find it to be very nice on lots of toons. I do tend to slot sets with a good mix of bonuses however and try to avoid relying on purples.

Just curious how Broadsword is holding up on a stalker? I hear lots of talk and by checkin out its stats I see it is indeed very similar to Ninja Blade.

So my question is how do the 2 actually compare Damage wise?

Wow I hadn't even thought about the Beacon and Tree combo. I don't play plant often and always skip the beacon. But those 2 together would be pretty good. Not my flavor of juice mind you but good none the less.

Still tho the idea of Earth/Traps would make me giggle watching my Villain-Pop popcorn as they bounce in the air and get pelted by the Acid Mortar and seeing those few who aren't dancing, huddled over and puking their guts out. Watching Volcanic Gasses and PGT is always a hoot when I can get my Earthies to team with some kick *** traps corrs/mms. So the ability to do that solo would be a great joy.

Gravity/Energy is a pretty good set up honestly. With the damage from lift and your energy attacks you get lotsa mitigation. Also Wormhole+PB+Domination = Teleporting Mitos out of hami to beat them down. Now if only you got boost range you could port them into Atlas Park!!!

No other primary I know of can do that and I have witnessed it first hand, tho it was a Grav/Psi and when he plucked one of those little glowies out I swear you could hear the OMGS.

2ndly Singy Rocks!

Both have strengths and weaknesses.

Minds single target damage is great. The lack of a pet brings its overall damage down. It has no real means of AOE damage, terrify being its only AOE damage. Most other sets get an AOE immob which does decent damage if slotted for it. Fire gets the best obviously with AOE immob, hot feet, and bonfire.

However I think mind is stronger late game due to its I got every type of mez you could think of. It gets a single target confuse which helps with troublesome foes like Illusion. This allows you stack it with your lvl 32 AOE confuse to get those pesky mobs. Mind is a much better tool for all occasions type of set. If your looking for raw damage its not really that set. It won't be taking out legions of bad guys with the quickness. Another benefit of mind that gets over looked (A LOT) is its AOE SLEEP. On a dom it is a godsend in the LRSF, and on trollers boy is it handy on Statesman. The bad thing about sleep is that it takes one retard who doesn't pay attention to X is sleeping!! But on a good team its really a nice, we need a breather! and it lasts a fairly long time (Even on an AV)

Illusion strength is its ability to divert aggro away from you. Illusion also gets 2 stealth powers which can be very handy depending on your secondary. This allows more flexibility then other sets since you don't have to dip into the concealment secondary. However that means 2 of its 9 powers in no way shape or form contribute to control or damage and it has no immob to set up containment. Which isn't much of a problem later on, early tho it can be a pain. So your damage when PA is out goes up drastically, when its not then your damage is really really bad. The phantasm does offset this like most pets do once you hit 32. However for large mobs without PA Illusion can be overwhelmed quickly. One of the main reasons its paired with /kin or /rad is both powers have +RECH which makes getting PA out quicker and in some instances perma.

Also remember later on the damage from your primary is greatly improved with epics. Secondary also plays a key part as some primary/secondary combos are better then others. While some pairings actually multiply the effectiveness of each other.

I have a lot of experience with Traps both on a Corr and MM. I have good archery experience. I have created a Arch/Traps corr tho it is low lvl it looks pretty good.

A solid build upto 20 would be.

1) Snap Shot/Web Grenade
2) Fistful of Arrows
4) Caltrops
6) Swift
8) Blazing Arrow
10) Combat Jumping
12) Acid Morta
14) Super Jump
16) FFG
18) Health
20) Stamina

Now many people skip travel powers in the low levels, I am of the latter getting them early allows me to slot up my attacks and other powers as most travel powers rarely need more then 1 extra *** (Unless you using them for mules or perhaps PvP) Super Jumping is just the travel I chose for this toon. You can set traps from hover as long as your close to the ground. You don't need to drop hover to do so.

Snap-Fistful-Blazing is a decent attack string to start. Add in vet rewards to fill out if you got em. Getting Acid mortar out frequently is the key. Its got a good debuff and can be a great magnet for enemies to target.

My 20s will look like this.

22) Poison Trap
24) Aim
26) Stunning Shot
28) Seeker Drones
30) Maneuvers

Stunning gives a much needed stun which can stack with the seekers. The seekers are your alpha absorbers. They will be what allows you to run in and drop Poison Trap, Acid Mortar, and Caltrops with a fair amount of safety. Maneuvers is there for added defense to stack on top of the FFG and for another slot to put a LOTG 7.5. The Stun on Seekers isn't that great and I personally slot for -To Hit.

My 30s are really wide open as I really don't like the last 2 powers in traps. They have their uses and can be put to good effect I just don't like em. Personal taste really.

32) Rain of Arrows
35) Hasten
38) Tactics

Again this is really just for my play style but Hasten really helps get those traps up much much quicker. And again I just really like tactics (To Hit Buff sets are pretty good). You could easily replace it with some other power.

The 40s are pretty loose. You can get some good powers from all the set to help round out your attacks or debuffs. Personally I am going with Ghost Widow. Since my alpha is run in and drop stuff may as well get a PBAOE that buffs my damage and who doesn't love a power boosted FFG!!!!

Ymmv and the build is very loose. Some people will disagree with keeping snap shot, but I find snap shot is better DPA over time then Aimed Shot. I don't really find Explosive Arrow to be that worthy on a toon other then a blaster. Its great for some extra mitigation tho. However I want mobs staying in my PT, Caltrops.

Hope this at least gives you some building ideas. I didn't go into slotting because that's a personal taste and you may slot your powers differently. But I always slot my Seekers, PT, Acid with 6 slots and try to get as much RECH as possible.

I understand that Dark Miasma is prolly never coming to us. Does not stop me from wanting it. However I am really hoping Controllers get /Traps!!!

So what does the mighty controller community think about the possibility of getting /Traps?? Do people want it? What would you pair with it?

I think Terra has good advice. You will get a lot of glass is half full points of view from people who think their dog is best in show.

Another good question is how RICH are you? Can you afford all those LOTGs?, numina proc?, regen tissue proc? Miracle proc? etc. Are you power leveling to 50? Teaming to 50? Do you want you toon to be very good when 50? or on a sister psyche tf? It makes a difference when you start asking about builds.

If you not a billionaire, or farming merits then the UBER OMG I'm the thunder god!!! boasts will mean nothing as you climb to 50. Some builds are so dependent on SETS to succeed that without them they aren't special or only special at a certain lvl. Other combos simply rely on 1 or 2 powers from a 9 power set. Look at all the people who cried about PSW on doms, despite the cold hard fact that the other 8 powers got buffed rather nicely. Or those precious Super Strength toons who only ever talk about Rage and Footstomp!! I saw a PvP toon in the arena cleaning house. I then saw that same toon not win any fights if he wasn't a full out 50.

Do you want to brag about how you smacked Lord Recluse and he cried like a school girl and gave you his lunch money? If all

For every X/X set is awesome!! there are a few X/X set is lousy!!! If you looking for the FOTM then you really have to be able to buy it. You can fix just about any hole in any set if you throw enough money at it.

Asking what set is best is like asking what beer is best. You'll always get some guy who will argue that Coors is the best beer ever. Personally I think the best is any combo that requires very little to do a whole lot. Beating Lord Recluse with a nuke is easy. Beating him with a spork, now that is power!

Traps is really a great set. It is incredible strong on a MM. Defenders getting traps makes me happy because that means at some point TROLLERS! will be getting it.

The full nerf of PGT came after the wedding pack. I imagine it was on the radar but that wedding event the devs saw just how brutal PGT was. The bat fell hard after that event. Nothing puts a mark on a set that hitting devs with its awesome power. The fact that so many traps got together and no one could move due to the puking. The proc happy wasn't that bad, no one being able to move or do anything for a full 5 mins that is a wake up call and a half!!!

Thankfully my Thugs/Traps got make every AV redside puke before that bat hit! To this day nothing makes me giggle more then dropping seekers on the entire FF running in and dropping PGT and watching ALL of them puke!! PRICELESS!!

Some hints I learned. Do not 3 Slot swift for flight. The benefit you get is very VERY small. I've had hover 3 slotted for some time on many toons. I took both slots out and added 1 to hover and actually gained speed and a slot.

Seriously the difference between hover 3 slotted and 1 slotted was about 2mph if I was lucky. I went through all my toons (I use hover a lot on soooo many) and every toon saw a drastic increase in hover speed by just adding 1 slot to hover over 2 to swift. Tho your MMV, the math was just to hard to ignore.

The other key to making hover is fast is +Speed set bonuses.

My Mercs/Trick Arrow MM has an insane hover speed. I have a lvl 50 flight in swift. 2 lvl 50 Soaring (Flight, Flight/End). I hover faster then any one using spring, by a fair margin. So much so that most people don't believe I'm using hover. It makes traversing around the field easy. Best of all you can completely avoid those annoying caltrops the Knives toss around like confetti.

However I also have around 20% global speed, which is very easy to attain since many sets give you a 5% global.

Good thing is you don't even need to make hard sacrifices to get that. Got a build up? 2 slot Guassian. Got an Aim? 2 slot guassian. Those will net you 5% global each. 2 slotting Force Feedback in a KB power will also get you a 5%. 2 slotting Performance shifter in stamina (the END, +Rech) will get you another 5%.

One of the best ways tho is to 3 slot Winters Gift. You get the effect of both +spd, and the slow resist. 3 slotting them in hover will also give you a 6%. Now I'm not saying those are better then other options but it is an option. (I went this route on one of my /REGEN scrappers because those slows can make the difference of you click not coming back in time)

In closing, on paper 3 slotting swift with fly seems good on paper. In practical appliance both those slots will get you much MUCH more speed if you put em in hover. Plus putting more slots in hover allows you to add some nice perks. LOTG +7.5, Kismet +ACC, Karma KB, etc. Ymmv tho.

Seekers are just awesome. People scoff at them but those little toys of joy are wonderful. Plus when combined with any primary that has a stun (archer/sonic off the top of my head) can stun bosses. Since the mag in seekers is only 2, its enough to stack with the mag 3 for bosses.

Side note. I actually saw and Electric/Traps corr the other day!!! Now that is really a rare bird among the aviary!!!

Only a selfish person would think that STORM and DARK are weak sets and not want them on their team.

Everyone calls for a KIN. The reason is simple, all they care about is the crack. Kin is all about buffing. Most people only pay attention to their toon. That makes them selfish. Selfish people only care about what something does for them. Most selfish people also want recognition that something is helping them. If they can not see the effects then it is not happening. You never see "Inertial Reduction plz"

Dark Miasma-ists and Storm-ites steal that thunder.

When AVs are involved everyone screams for a RAD. That is because RAD is fire and forget, for the most part. You sit there you put your heal on auto, drop your toggles, and cast AM when its up. Really its the AM that most people are after, since the heal in RAD is pretty crappy when you compare it as a "healing" set. AM fits the build for what most people want out of KINs. They want the buffs because it makes them more powerful. RAD is powerful, there is no doubt. However RAD is not as good in as many situations as a storm or a dark.

That is why people don't care for steamy mist, leadership toggles, etc. They are not persistent on them. You have to be in range, that means they can't then go off and take out the whole map by themselves. That reminds them they aren't as powerful as they think. Cast pain bringer on them and they can go anywhere they want with that and believe they are that good. Now they can be the Michael Jordan they want to be.

The power of Dark Miasma and Storm have been well documented. Dark Miasma is the best user friendly set in the game. You could give the set to a 5 yr old and they will be very good with it. People hate on storm because of the chaos it can create. But any person who actually teams to be a part of the team knows their true benefit/power.

People compare them to pain, because pain is all about buffing your teammates. Since that is all most people really care about it is seen as a better set. Those people could care less what you did to that mob, because all they want is big honking glow in the dark numbers over their head or in their status window. Not one of those people will ever turn and say, "you know that tar patch really helped me kill those guys quickly" or "wow with hurricane up that AV never laid a hand on me"

Just how some people are. Remember people also don't think that trollers are capable of damage, or that defenders have sets other then healing, or that leadership actually stacks and Assault is 18% damage coming from a defender, 15% from a troller or corruptor.

Try Archery/Traps when it gets ported. Traps does not have a large number of constant spamming powers. Which helps reduce the amount of redraw other combos may have with Archery.

Traps has one of the best alpha combos (IMO).

Drop seekers (well slotted for -to hit). Run in drop PGT, Acid Mortar, Caltrops.
Drop back, Rain of Arrows, Fistful, Exploding.

With FFG slotted for DEF + Maneuvers + Combat Jumping thats some serious DEF coupled with the -to hit from seekers.

I had a buddy make a AR/Traps corr after seeing how my MM was. And man watching that corr in actions was just lovely. I can imagine archery will be even sweeter.

Plus the 2 scream theme.

Plant is a great beginner primary. It gets Seeds of Confusion at lvl 8 and with average slotting can be up every mob. Now you will meet some confuse resists later on in your career, but they aren't that abundant. You also get a sleep which is very valuable on certain TFs.

If your looking for a bit more of a challenge but a really fun primary go Mind. You get a lot of different mez types. You also get really good damage from most of your powers.

Earth is just awesome. However getting used to earth might take some time and I would seriously not try it for your first time out. It can lock down so many mobs. But if your not sure how to use some of them you can draw a lot of aggro really fast. Earth also gives lots of -def which makes slotting ACC in your powers easier, since you won't need as much slotting for ACC. Tho it is still good to have a nice amount.

For starting stay away from GRAVITY. It is not a bad set but for a new player it might be a bit frustrating to learn how to make an effective set.
For secondaries you can't really go wrong with any of them now. Some have interesting synergy with certain primary power sets.

Plant/Fire is a good combo that meets most of your requirements. Plant for seeds and fire for straight up damage while your mobs are tearing each other part makes for quick fights.

Earth/Psi or Cold would be great. You get lotsa -def from your primary and -rech from your secondary. Meaning mobs are easier to hit and attacking less.

Mind/Anything can take apart most situations with little fuss. On large teams you may not feel as powerful as some of the other primaries with their flashy graphics. But mind is one of the best all round primaries. (READ: I said feel!!!)

Good luck, hope this gives you some ideas.

Hey ipso, if you do get a chance to test your blaster give a shout about how it played. I've been curious about this pairing. I have no experience with /ice out of all the blaster secondaries and would love to know how they mesh.

Like being that rare combo, that makes people go "Hey I gotta try that!!"

I seldom see mention of this but what about Rad/Ice? Ice is not a very damaging set but it is a mitigation beast.

Ice gets Chilling Embrace which provides some nice -Dam, -rech.
You also get a PBAOE knockdown in Ice Patch for some good mitigation.
Shiver is a good slow with very generous -rech.

Add in the 2 melee attacks (which have some -rech/slow)

I know Ice doesn't do lots of damage and that is why (I'm guessing here) the secondary isn't as popular. I think it rates just above /Devices for secondaries.

Blasters 10
Controllers = 14 (+1)
Defenders = 11
Scrappers = 13
Tankers = 11
Peace Bringers = 2 (-1)
War Shades = 10
Brutes = 11
Corruptors = 10
Dominators = 10
Masterminds = 10
Stalkers = 9
Widows = 9
Soldiers = 10

Yeah I didn't consider /Earth mostly because I'm leaning more towards Plant/Earth. With the AOE confuse and mud pot once they clump up. My original thought was Plant/Psi but I think I'll like Plant/Earth more. After my Ice/Ice DOM, which rocks, I'm just not a fan of similar Primary/Secondary combos. So while I'm sure Earth/Earth will be beast, I just prefer to mix it up.

I haven't played PSI with the new changes so I didn't realize they were that close now. My Fire/Psi hit 50 long before the new changes and I don't really dust her off that much. Gonna have to hit Mids.

Ok so I have been bouncing around an idea for a new Earth dom. I already have an Earth/Fire at high lvls. A budding Earth/Energy. However with GR I know I want to make an Earth dom to take to the good side.

I am however torn between Earth/Electric, Earth/Ice, Earth/Psi. The problem I am having is that they all seem to do different things really well. I have a lvl 50 Fire/Psi, a 40ish Ice/Ice, and a Mind/Elec in the 30s. So I have some familiarity with all sets involved.

I like the Feel of Earth/Elec for running in while mobs are flopping and face pounding them. Also love the graphix with /Elec and especially with I16 coming.

Earth/Ice is a great mix of everything in my primary makes you easier to hit and my secondary slows you down.

Then Earth/Psi which has better -rech then ice but is a greater handicap in damage. Ice also gets Power Boost, but PSI gets that mighty AOE. Note I don't have a problem with PSI's damage.

So any one run any of these combos? Any ideas? Again I'm not looking for "I CAN SOLO AVs" here just hoping that something can tip the scales. Because it will make choosing a secondary for my new plant dom that much easier.

Thanks

Really? The same, when I was fiddling with the character creation, it showed the corruptor damage at lvl 50 being more then when I checked the defender version.

Hope that does indeed get a fix, tho with scourge I can imagine that getting pretty nasty. Does scourge check for each tick?

Thank you all for the input. I have been trying to wrap my head around cold for some time. It helps when people give an unbiased opinion. I knew cold was a team oriented set but wasn't exactly sure why many people were gaga over it. I've always been impressed with cold but believed that over all storm was vastly superior in all situation. Thanks again for all the info.

I may be crazy but have you thought about /Dark Armor for katana? I know Dark Armor is not a very popular set but it can be very effective.

Dark gives some good resists, has a great heal, and some nice mitigation tools. I only mention because I got to see one in action and they were impressive. It was not a high end (Read: Expensive) IO build either.

Just 2 inf for a different breed of toon.

DOHLT!!! Dam Ice..

So I have come to a vital conflict. With corruptors getting Archery I was finally gonna make my Arch/Storm toon. The more I look at it tho I have been comparing the 2 ATs different takes on this combo. I know defenders get much better buffs/debuffs but dam that scourge is great for ending fights.

So I put it to the community for a great debate. Which one comes out better in the long run?
Which power would you want earlier? Thunderstorm or Rain of Arrows?